Against the Elements
"Against the Elements" is the third episode of Season One of The Mummy: The Animated Series. Plot summary In India, the O'Connell family explores ruins and Evelyn can’t squeeze through a large crack in the wall to reach something so Alex squeezes through and attempts to reach an old book, unnerved at the sight of some skeletons in the crack. Jonathan eyes a jewel embedded into a Buddha statue’s forehead as Alex reaches for the book, aided at that moment by the Manacle of Osiris, which pulls the book closer to him: the book is actually the diary of Alexander the Great and it refers to his daily life after conquests in ancient northern Egypt and even refers to the Scrolls of Thebes. Jonathan then pries off the jewel from the Buddha statue’s head, causing the ceiling of the ruins to come slowly down on the family. The four escape, dodging spears shooting from the walls as they do, and Jonathan trips, almost being crushed by the ceiling when Alex uses the diary to stopper the ceiling, giving Jonathan just enough time to escape and causing Jonathan to say to Alex that he “owes him one”; the diary, however, is crushed by the ceiling save for one page, which Alex tore out and kept hidden in his sleeve. Reading the torn page, Evelyn states that Alexander the Great left the Scrolls in the Palace of Merneptah in the ancient city of Memphis, Jonathan balks at having to return to Egypt and Rick points out that the Zephyr is broken down; with that, he notes, the family will need some transportation, but none of them are aware that the Sherpa guide they hired is eavesdropping on their conversation. The family goes into town and agrees to split up, meeting in one street in an hour: Rick then gives the order to stay out of trouble, to which Alex and Jonathan both remark that he means the other and the two walk down the city streets, finding a fakir that charms a cobra by playing a tune on a pungi. Jonathan remarks that it’s a fake and snatches the pungi from the charmer, playing it badly, and the cobra gets angered and about to strike when a mongoose leaps into the basket where the cobra is, and attacks the snake, driving it out of the basket. The snake charmer is angry that his cobra has left and demands recompense, leaving Alex with no pocket money. Jonathan, afterwards, reluctantly keeps the secret of Alex owning the mongoose when Alex reminds him that Jonathan owes him a favour, and Jonathan is soon after shocked and dismayed to see that the transport that Rick chose is elephants. During the trip, the mongoose, which Alex has now named Tut, pops out of his hiding place in Alex’s shirt, causing Rick to start sneezing as the mongoose triggers allergies, but Alex keeps the animal hidden, unknowing that the man who spied on them earlier is spying once more. Meanwhile, in his lair, Imhotep is angry that Colin Weasler has, thus far, been unable to retrieve the Scrolls or find the O'Connell family, to which Weasler states that Imhotep must be patient, but soon changes his idea once he sees Imhotep distort his already-rotted face, exposing long fangs and burning eyes. Just then, a spy that Weasler contracted to spy on the O'Connell family, Salah, comes in, shocked at seeing both Imhotep and Weasler being thrown across the area. The O'Connell family returns to Egypt and Alex notices that Tut has escaped from him and is dangerously close to Rick finding him, but Alex covers up and takes Tut back into hiding; back in his lair, Imhotep strides the halls and is informed by Weasler that the O'Connells must be close to the Nile, and that they could get to the palace first. Imhotep declares that their progress will be slowed, and opens an aged chest containing a jewelled rod that Weasler identifies as the Staff of Seth; with the staff, Imhotep summons a water dragon. Back at the river, Jonathan doubts that the raft he and his family are riding on is unsafe, but Evelyn dismisses this as nothing harmful would happen on a river. Just then, the water dragon that Imhotep summoned reaches the raft and destroys it, just as the family dives to escape it. Evelyn notes that water dragons are thought to be mythical, and Alex finds Tut alive and well inside his satchel, but Rick is caught in a violent whirlpool caused by the dragon; at that moment, an arrow tied to a rope hits the side of the raft and Ardeth Bay uses the arrow to pull the family to safety, at which point Alex, Evelyn and Jonathan pull Rick out of the whirlpool in the nick of time. Ardeth drives his horse further inland, pulling the raft, but the dragon chases the family as Evelyn notes that to stop it, its water supply must be cut off. As the raft is pulled through the sands, Rick cuts the rope pulling it, causing the raft to fling upward, cutting off the dragon’s supply; at escaping with their lives, Jonathan balks at Evelyn’s previous idea that nothing dangerous could happen on a river. Later that night, Jonathan climbs into his sleeping bag and finds Tut inside of it; Alex takes the mongoose away and hides it in his shirt. Ardeth and Rick manage to salvage some of the equipment from the raft while Evelyn wonders where the water dragon could possibly have come from, deducing that Imhotep had summoned it; Ardeth goes on to say that his fellow Medjai informed him that Imhotep is headed to the Palace of Merneptah after having spoken with their Sherpa guide. Rick notes that not even Imhotep’s powers could summon a water dragon, to which Ardeth reveals that Imhotep has the Staff of Seth, an ancient staff that the Egyptian god of chaos, Set, used. The Staff has the power to control the four elemental powers: earth, water, wind and fire. With this in mind, the family and Ardeth leave the campsite at once to search for the Palace of Merneptah, finding its location the next morning, only to see that the structure itself is gone, broken down over the centuries, ransacked by thieves. Rick, however, uses his dynamite to blow an entrance into the remains of the Palace, after which the family digs through the ruins. Rick continues sneezing and finds the source in the knapsack: Tut. Alex states that the reason he took Tut was because, besides Jonathan, he feels lonely. Rick states that they’ll talk about it later, and the entrance to the Palace is opened: Evelyn notes that two statues with carved monstrous faces stand on the outsides of the Palace, to keep out intruders, and as the group is about to enter, Imhotep appears on the horizon, using the Staff of Set to bring the statues to life as stone mummy. The stone creatures surround the group as Imhotep and Weasler enter the Palace, with Imhotep’s orders to bring Alex along so as to separate the Manacle from him. Weasler takes Alex away, leaving the others to fight against the stone mummies, which are all but indestructible as Rick sees when hits one with his shovel. Ardeth attempts to cut them with his sword but is not successful, and Jonathan attempts to reach for the dynamite to blow them up but is stopped when one stone mummy stomps it out. Evelyn is caught between two and is almost killed when Rick uses a bullwhip to pull Evelyn away, leaving the two stone statues to collide against one another, breaking into large pieces and buying Rick and Evelyn enough time to go after Imhotep. Inside the Palace halls, Rick and Evelyn catch up to Weasler, but Imhotep uses the Staff’s power to summon a wind demon to stop them from coming any closer, which pulls Evelyn and Rick into it as Alex is being pulled away by Weasler: Alex then knocks Weasler out against a wall and takes his belt, connecting it with his own to reach his parents. The Manacle’s powers then set in, destroying the wind demon in seconds. Meanwhile, outside, Ardeth and Jonathan attempt to fight the stone mummies and successfully destroy them with dynamite. Inside the Palace’s main chamber, Imhotep declares that the world’s fate is already sealed, summoning two fire dogs with the Staff that chase Rick and Evelyn. While the fire dogs chase Rick and Evelyn, Imhotep breaks through a wall and finds a chest containing the Scrolls of Thebes. During the chase, Rick shoves the head of one fire dog into a pot while Evelyn throws sand into another’s mouth and the two continue running as the dogs keep chasing them. Imhotep attempts to open the box containing the Scrolls but Tut launches himself at Imhotep, stopping him from opening the chest for a moment before Imhotep throws him aside. Imhotep then opens the chest to see that there are no Scrolls inside of it and lets out a howl of rage before seeing that Alex has the Staff of Set, and uses it to stop the fire dogs from attacking his parents, turning them instead on Imhotep himself. Imhotep sneers at this and escapes, turning into sand and slipping through the walls of the Palace, after which Alex then smashes the Staff, dissipating the fire dogs. Ardeth and Jonathan enter, to find that Imhotep and Weasler have both escaped, and without the Scrolls, the family must travel to the next location, wherever the Scrolls are. Alex asks his father if he can keep Tut, to which Rick replies that if he can stomach Jonathan, he can overcome his allergies. Cast *Jim Cummings - Imhotep, Snake charmer *Grey DeLisle - Evelyn O'Connell *Michael Reisz - Colin Weasler *Christopher Marquette - Alex O'Connell *John Schneider - Rick O'Connell *Tom Kenny - Jonathan Carnahan Appearances Characters *Rick O'Connell *Evelyn O'Connell *Jonathan Carnahan *Alex O'Connell *Ardeth Bay *Imhotep *Colin Weasler *Tut *Salah *Snake charmer *Alexander the Great Creatures *Cobra *Mongoose *Horse *Elephant *Water dragon *Wind demon *Stone mummy *Fire dog Locations *India **Indian temple *Egypt **Nile **Memphis ***Palace of Merneptah Artifacts *Manacle of Osiris *Scrolls of Thebes *Alexander the Great’s Diary *Staff of Seth Vehicles *Zephyr Notes and references Category:The Mummy: The Animated Series episodes